Tale on Skheria
by Maelan Peredhil
Summary: I wanted to put something up, and went rooting through my old English assignments. This one was that entailed us 'translating' a part of the Odyssey. I put it into rhyming epic poem form. Odysseus tells the Phaiakians of what he saw in Hades.


Many lovely ghosts were there!   
The princess of great ladies fair-   
Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus,   
wife and queen of Kretheus.   
She'd been enchanted by the river named   
Enipeus, and she had ranged   
for a day along the stream,   
whose form had been taken by the king   
and god of the sea, and where he flowed   
to the ocean, in his abode   
he took her, both hid by the veil   
of a purple billow. Such was her tale. 

When the god's pleasure was fulfilled,   
to her he spoke softly, holding her still. 

'In joy, dear mortal, now you may go.   
For sons you will bear me, this I know.   
The loving of gods is never in vain.   
Teach well our sweet children; let them train.   
Now get you home, and tell no tale   
of who was your love- though I am yours still.   
Poseidon I am, lord of the surf,   
who can shake this world round its girth.' 

He plunged away into the deep sea,   
and soon, great with child grew she.   
Her sons were Pelias and Neleus,   
who grew to be strong vassals of Zeus.   
Peleia dewlt on Iolkos,   
while the home of Neleus was at Pylos.   
To Kretheus, Tyro's rightful lord,   
three other sons she bore.   
Aison, Pheres, and Amythaon, their names.   
The last was a charioteer of great fame. 

After Tyro I saw Antiope,   
daughter of Asopos. As Tyro, could she   
boast of sleeping with a god- Zeus   
had given her sons, Amphion and Zethos,   
founders of Thebes, that city great;   
the ancient citadel they did make.   
For all their power, no life at all   
on that plain was sheltered without a fort wall. 

Next came Alkmene, Amphitrion's wife.   
To lionish Heracles she gave life   
when in Zeus' arms lay she;   
and Kreon's daughter Magare,   
the wife of Amphitrion's son,   
who was known as an untiring one. 

I saw Oidipous' mother, Epikaste.   
A great, unwitting deed she,   
when still in life, had done.   
For she had married her own son.   
The gods made this story known.   
But by their strong wills he kept his throne,   
through all his days, in Thebes,   
while into Death went Epikaste.   
Steep down from a rafter high,   
throttled in a noose; no cry   
from her, carried away by pain,   
leaving the Furies of a mother slain. 

Khloris I saw, that lovely lady   
who was wooed for her beauty   
by Neleus, in times of old.   
Of Amphion, the youngest child.   
He, son of Iasos, did then boast   
power at Orkhomenos.   
Children she bore as the queen of Pylos:   
Nestor, Khromios, and Periklymenos,   
and a daughter, Pero fair,   
whose beauty made all men stare.   
Many princes courted her,   
but Neleus would hear of no suitor   
save if he could drive a giant's cows   
from Phylake; longhorns, with great brows,   
so fierce that only one, a diviner,   
to round them up made the offer.   
Cruel fate saw him captured,   
held until a year had passéd.   
Then the seasons came again   
and the giant did relent.   
He freed the prisoner, who then told   
him of the things that would unfold. 

And I saw Leda, she who bore   
two sons, greater than any before.   
The tamer of horses, named Kastor,   
and Polydeukes, the boxing ring's master.   
Though in earth, these two live yet,   
even in the land of Death.   
Honored by Zeus as gods, each day   
one lives while the other Death stays. 

After Leda, then I saw   
Aloeus' wife, Iphimedia.   
She'd held the flowing sea once   
and borne him two great sons:   
Otos and Ephialtes.   
Never were there such as these   
bred on the grainlands; never,   
save Orion, as great another.   
At nine, nine fathoms tall they were,   
and these two boys, they swore   
with battle cries heaven to break;   
war upon the gods they'd make.   
They meant to crown Olympos high   
with Ossa's peak and forest pile.   
Perhaps, once they were giants grown   
they would have done so. But the bright son   
of Zeus, he shot them true   
while yet boys on whom no beards grew. 

Then came Phaidra, Prokris, and Ariadne,   
daughter of King Minos, and she   
was taken by Theseus away from Crete,   
but joy with her he did not meet.   
On the Isle of Dia she was slain by Artemis   
at a mere word from Dionysos. 

Maira, Klymene, and that queen abhorred   
Eriphyle, who, for gold, betrayed her lord...   
But how can I name all the women I saw,   
princesses and queens, all?   
The starry night will grow old   
ere this story is all told. 


End file.
